obama argued to friendly radio hosts that republicans are standing in his way for the wrong reasons. >> their basic view is that nothing is important enough to raise taxes on wealthy individuals or corporations and they would prefer to see these kinds of cuts and that's the thing that binds their party together at this point." >> reporter: but republicans say the president is raising false alarms. house majority leader eric cantor put it this way in a statement "president obama has said unless he gets a second tax hike he will be forced to let criminals loose on the streets, the meat at your grocery store won't be inspected and emergency responders will be unable to do their jobs. these are false choices." republicans also argue that agencies will have some leeway that the cuts may not be as drastic as the president has portrayed. people here do admit that it could take several months for the public to really feel the pain, which they say is only going to increase the damage. charlie, norah? >> bill, thank you so much. do we know if he called democrat ick? >> he did not call democrat